Belle Poule

"Belle Poule" was a French 80-gun steam ship built in 1800 in Le Havre dockyards in France. Put into action in the Napoleonic Wars, it captured HMS Hector in a duel off Saint-Domingue (Haiti).

History
"Belle Poule" was built in 1800 in the dockyards of Le Havre in France, and was captained by Pierre-Thiery Clarisse. The 80-gun steam ship was powerful, with a crew of 223 people. In 1802 it dueled with HMS Hector, a 122-gun Heavy First Rate, off the coast of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) at the same time as the Haitian Revolution. "Belle Poule" was boarded and Clarisse was killed, but the crew overpowered the British boarding crew and HMS Hector was captured.

"Belle Poule" later struck a reef of the coast of Spanish Florida while returning to France after buying salted pork from the people of St. Augustine, and all of its surviving crew either died or fled to Florida.